What is this a horse with no name -thing in Stateside? This started bothering me, when I tried playing GTA San Andreas and there was some other song on that game where someone sang about a horse with no name. Is it from some movie? Or does it have some "deeper" meaning? Or what?

"A Horse With No Name" was a popular song the band America, written in 1971. Like most pop songs written in the time period, it was linked (whether or not it was intended to be) with drug culture -- "horse" being one of the street names for heroin. More plausibly, the song is about spending time outside of civilization... For Bowie, it probably also recalled a certain sense of Old West Americana, which is probably what he was getting at in Stateside.

I hoped he got raped in the ass by 50 men, with dicks wrapped in barbed wire dipped in acid. - Vanessa_Y

I've always loved this song with it's jaunty type singalong rhythm and what you say makes sense.

A Horse With No Name

On the first part of the journey I was looking at all the life There were plants and birds and rocks and things There was sand and hills and rings The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz And the sky with no clouds The heat was hot and the ground was dry But the air was full of sound

I've been through the desert on a horse with no name It felt good to be out of the rain In the desert you can remember your name 'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain La, la ...

After two days in the desert sun My skin began to turn red After three days in the desert fun I was looking at a river bed And the story it told of a river that flowed Made me sad to think it was dead

You see I've been through the desert on a horse with no name It felt good to be out of the rain In the desert you can remember your name 'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain La, la ...

After nine days I let the horse run free 'Cause the desert had turned to sea There were plants and birds and rocks and things there was sand and hills and rings The ocean is a desert with it's life underground And a perfect disguise above Under the cities lies a heart made of ground But the humans will give no love

You see I've been through the desert on a horse with no name It felt good to be out of the rain In the desert you can remember your name 'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain La, la ...

And I think Bowie put it in the song because he was trying desperately to make it sound clever.

More as likely

This was one of the first songs I can remember as a child always being played on the radio, I guess it stuck in my mind A/ because I didn't understand it, B/ the lyics are just so catchy and C/ I felt sorry because the horse had no name, strange the way we interpret things as children, but these interpretations can stay with you for life.

Neither am I, It wasn't until I joined TW that I knew what Lou Reed was singing about on "Perfect Day" I had NO idea that song was about drugs I've learnt so much from this site which is why I love it so much.